High tea Trini style

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High tea Trini style incorporates traditional Caribbean bush teas such as fever grass, lime bud, and ginger to provide natural wellness benefits through locally sourced ingredients. This personal narrative explores the cultural transition from traditional home-grown remedies to modern gourmet trends, highlighting the intrinsic value of Trinidad and Tobago’s botanical heritage.

The author contrasts the high retail prices of packaged herbs like lemongrass with the abundance of “fever grass” found in local gardens. By documenting generational knowledge passed down from mothers and mothers-in-law, the article validates the efficacy of aromatic infusions for ailments ranging from colic to hypertension.

This exploration serves as a guide for enthusiasts seeking authentic Caribbean flavours and sustainable health practices through backyard foraging. It distinguishes itself by pairing nostalgic storytelling with practical applications of indigenous flora in a modern culinary context.

Key Takeaways

• Trinidadian high tea focuses on fresh bush teas gathered directly from local gardens and backyards.
• Traditional infusions like lime bud and orange peel offer calming properties and digestive relief.
• Generational knowledge preserves the use of ginger and garlic teas for managing blood pressure.
• Local fever grass provides the same antioxidants as expensive gourmet lemongrass sold in retail stores.
• Caribbean herbal traditions offer sustainable and cost-effective alternatives to modern commercial health trends.

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High tea Trini style: Traditional Caribbean herbal infusions and benefits

By Marissa Armoogam. As the world becomes more and more caught up in the weekly changing health craves, the one that stood out to me the most is the different types of teas that are supposedly really great for improving ones health. Now I would definitely consider myself a tea enthusiast. I drink tea maybe as often as I can get a hold of some.

From time to time I do my research on which tea has the anti-oxidants as opposed to the ones that are caffeine free I mean everyone wants the secret to endless youth. One day I visited a new gourmet food store that all my friends could not stop talking about, and to my surprise there on the shelves staring back at me for the price of $70.99 was a bottle containing six stalks of Lemon Grass for the purpose of drawing to make a white tea. Now imagine my shock (mainly at the $70.99) since this Lemon Grass is a favourite local tea called “fever-grass” which I recall having since I was a child.

This brings me to my point, here in Trinidad, there are so many old favourites that we have somehow allowed to die or just refused to pass on to younger generations. I remember my mother using the young soft leaves at the tips of the lime plant to draw and make a delicious “lime-bud tea”. I also remember after having my children and they had bouts of colic or “gas” she thought me that a little lime-bud goes a long way in relieving them.

Sometimes the peels of an orange that had been hung somewhere in the kitchen to dry was made into a very aromatic and very nerve calming tea.

After marriage my mother-in-law showed me how to use ginger or garlic to make a much stronger tasting tea as compared to the earlier ones and she used these teas to lower her blood pressure.  Another favourite is a warm and inviting spice tea using a little cinnamon stick, some ginger and maybe a clove… hmm.

So in essence what the world’s health gurus are now figuring out and bring to us has long been passed generation to generation in sweet Trinidad, and furthermore our teas are not pulled out of a box wrapped with little labels… oh no! When we want a relaxing cup of tea, just step out into your yard and gather some succulent leaves or stalks and draw yourselves a cup of tea that could have the queen herself talking. So, how many sugars for you, one or two?  Enjoy.

October 2013 – Issue 6   www.sweettntmagazine.com

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